After Twitter’s growth to prominence in 2009 (coupled with Facebook’s rise to even greater prominence), social media cemented itself as an integral part of our technologically-obsessed society and now no one, not even the NFL, will ignore its unmatchable ability to spread information and bring people together.
NFL.com has launched an official channel on its site dedicated solely to illuminating the shared experiences of people across the country and around the world leading up to and during this year’s Super Bowl, scheduled for February 7:
Celebrate Super Bowl XLIV through the experiences of fans in South Florida and the rest of the world. Explore photos and tweets from fans tagged #SB44, the official tag of the Super Bowl. Want to be included in the experience? Make sure to include #SB44 in your Twitter posts and tag your photos on Flickr. Then come back often to see the excitement unfold!
The “Tag the Super Bowl” page on the NFL site is basically a montage of various tweets and photos taken from users who use the Super Bowl hashtag on either of those sites. Interestingly, the NFL admits that the content displayed on the site is “not edited, fact-checked or screened,” so they’re definitely risking the potential for some undesirable words and photos. Still, the fact that they are not censoring any of the content reinforces the idea that the montage is completely user-generated, maintaining the whole point of this thing we call social media.
By the time the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts hit the field in a couple weeks, we can almost guarantee that #SB44 will be a trending topic on Twitter.
Social media’s rise in the past year is undeniable. Even while the NFL employs Twitter and Flickr to its own advantage, it’s worth noting that a month ago Pepsi announced that, for the first time in 23 years, the cola corporation would not be running any Super Bowl ads for its popular soda. While PepsiCo, Inc. will still be running commercials for Doritos, a product of Frito-Lay (a PepsiCo operating division), the company has decided to trade in Super Bowl ads for a social media campaign to market its soft drink.